Never Assume
by Icewing5
Summary: A mysterious conversation is overheard and instantly everyone thinks they know what's going on. Or do they...


First time writing for the public… so… please be erm… honest? Thanks.

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own One Piece.

Two Sides to Every Story

The Straw Hat's sniper was tinkering with a new project in the workshop. Franky had been kind enough to allow Ussop to experiment there. Both were quite good friends and sometimes shared ideas. Ussop would come up with prototypes and the ship's cyborg and shipwright would make it a reality.

This time, his project was a stage. He wanted to put on a small puppet play for Luffy and Chopper. It had curtains and props, he would need to do backdrops but for now, he worked on getting the stage right. It was a secret and only Franky knew about it because he needed Franky's help.

Ussop stared satisfactorily at the stage. It looked good except… a small part was slightly wobbly.

'That can be fixed with glue.' he thought.

But the glue wasn't on its usual place on the table.

'Maybe it's on the shelf.' Ussop decided, heading for the shelves to search.

But it wasn't on the shelves or anywhere in the workshop. With a shrug, Ussop went to his room.

'Luckily, I keep a pot of glue in my room for purposes like these. Captain Ussop thinks of everything!'

As he made his way to his room, he passed Robin's room with its door closed. In fact, it wasn't unusual. But this time, there was one difference.

"Can you hurry up?" asked someone who sounded very annoyed, loudly.

"Shh. Someone might hear you." said a quieter voice. "You do want to keep this a secret, correct?"

Ussop recognized both voices. Zoro and Robin. What were both of them doing? He paled as a sudden thought entered his head and scrambled away from the door which he had 'accidently' crept closer to. He fled to his room, all the while trembling.

"What was that?" asked Robin sharply.

To anyone else watching and not familiar with Robin's power, would've been surprised (and most likely horrified) to see an eye suddenly grow on the door with a flurry of flower petals.

"Well?" asked Zoro.

"Nothing."

"Good. Now can we continue?"

"Of course, swordsman-san."

Nami had been busy studying the map. She wanted to be sure that they were still on course for the next island, Shabondy Archipelago. But Ussop suddenly burst in practically shrieking about Robin and Zoro having a relationship. Nami's first reaction was disbelief and skepticism.

"Don't be silly. Robin doesn't even like Zoro." said Nami, dismissing the matter as one of Ussop's wild stories.

"But it's true! They were talking about keeping it a secret and stuff!" argued Ussop stubbornly.

"I still don't believe you." said Nami but her tone suggested she was slightly uncertain since he had really sounded sincere.

"Then go listen at the door!"

Quietly, both of them crept to Robin's door and placed their ear to it. They were soon rewarded with the sound of Zoro cursing.

"Oi! Be more careful!"

"Sorry. This is hard. Stay still."

Nami pulled away, eyes wide with shock. She met Ussop's equally wide eyes and nodded. She believed him.

Franky and Ussop were in the workshop, busy working on the stage. Ussop was telling Franky about Robin and Zoro's secret affair.

"But Nami says not to let them know that we know." finished Ussop.

"Robin-sis and Zoro-bro? Who've thought of it…" mumbled Franky, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I know!"

"By the way, have you seen the pot of glue?" Franky asked, looking around the workshop for it.

"No, I haven't. I thought you put it somewhere..?"

"That's strange…"

When Nami told Sanji, the reaction was simultaneous.

"WHAT!" yelled Sanji.

"It's true! I heard it from Ussop and confirmed it myself!"

"Of course I'm not doubting you Nami-swan~" cooed Sanji. But his tone changed as he thought of Zoro and Robin. "But, how dare that-that STUPID MARIMO!" he sputtered.

"Calm down, Sanji-kun." said Nami. "We'll just act like we don't know."

Even though this was an order from his beloved Nami-swan, Sanji found it very hard to give her the answer she wanted. After she managed to at least get a nod from him, she left. Sanji continued fuming and cursing Zoro.

Nami had informed Brooke.

"Wow, Nami-san. That's surprising…" the skeleton said.

"I know, but we must act like we don't know."

"Of course Nami-san."

They sat there in silence, each contemplating their own thoughts. Brook sipped from his cup of tea once before putting it down on the table.

"Ah, Nami-san. I have a question."

"Yes?"

"May I see your-"

"NO WAY! HOW CAN YOU THINK OF THAT AT SUCH A TIME!"

She stormed out of the room later with Brook sprouting a rather large lump on his head. He sighed and continued sipping tea.

"EHHH!"

"It's all true, Chopper!"

Chopper was staring wide eyed at Ussop.

"Yeah, it's all true, Chopper!" said Luffy, suddenly jumping into the conversation.

"EHHH!"

"Wait a minute, Luffy; you don't know what we're talking about… right?"

"Yeah."

"LUFFY!"

"So…," said Luffy a minute later after Ussop had yelled at him about not simply agreeing with other people about things he didn't know about. "What's going on? Is it something exciting?"

Ussop retold it all over again and maybe -just a little- exaggerated it. But still, he got the idea across.

"EHHH!"

Luffy gave the same reaction Chopper had given.

"But we are not to let them know that we know. Nami said so." said Ussop.

"Zoro and… Robin?" whimpered Chopper.

"Zoro and Robin love each other?" asked Luffy, puzzled.

"Shhh!" shushed Ussop frantically. "Not so loud! We're supposed to pretend like we don't know!"

"But why pretend when we already know?"

"Err… Because!"

"Because?"

And so, they continued the endless argument. Right up to dinner.

"Nami-swan~! Robin-swan~!" his voice faltered slightly when he called Robin but continued. "Dinner's served!" Then he changed his tone. "Oi, idiots! Dinner's ready!"

"Yahoo!" yelled Luffy instantly charging for the kitchen.

"Wait for the beautiful ladies to enter first, Luffy!"

Zoro and Robin were extremely confused. Sanji had been muttering curses, all directed at Zoro. Nami was looking sort of worried. Ussop, Franky and Chopper had been staring between the both of them but a quick glare from Zoro had put a stop to that. Brook kept playing love songs on his violin. But the penny didn't drop until Luffy asked them a question.

"Zoro, what does it mean when you love Robin?"

For a whole minute, the room was silent. The five who knew but were supposed to pretend like they didn't know gaped at Luffy, who was staring innocently at Zoro. Brook's face didn't show any emotion, Zoro seemed to be getting it, and Robin had already guessed it.

"What the-?" Zoro finally managed to say.

Chaos ensued.

"LUFFY!" shrieked Nami and Ussop together.

Robin was frowning. Which was a very bad thing.

"I would like to know where Captain-san heard this." she said quietly.

"Ussop told me."

Zoro glared at Ussop.

"Well?" asked Robin, still frowning.

The story came out in halts and broken pieces but eventually Zoro and Robin knew what was going on. Zoro let out a groan and buried his head in his hands. To their surprise, Robin smiled her 'I-know-something-you-don't.' smile.

"Will you tell them, or shall I?" she asked Zoro.

"You tell." he mumbled.

"Very well. If you would remember, this morning, Captain-san was very bored."

Most of them groaned, some nodded. He'd been announcing it, mostly into people's ears.

"He wanted to play tag."

Zoro shuddered involuntarily at that. Nami roughly began to put the pieces together but still… something was missing.

"He finally resorted to chasing Swordsman-san around. From what I understand, Swordsman-san and Captain-san ran into the workshop. He accidently bumped the table and a pot of glue on the table was splashed onto Swordsman-san's hair."

"Oh, yeah!" Luffy said, remembering.

The story differed greatly from the one they were told. In fact, there were many sighs of relief.

"Does that mean Zoro doesn't love Robin?" asked Luffy, confused.

"Yes, Captain-san." said Robin, chuckling slightly.

"Oh." said Luffy and went back to eating.

"It's all your fault, Luffy." grumbled Zoro. "If you hadn't chased me, this wouldn't have happened at all."

"Shishishi! Sorry, Zoro! But next time, play with me, alright?"

Zoro groaned again.


End file.
